Samsung Omnia II user reviews (Verizon Wireless)

Pros Simple and intuitive. Love the simple sync with my Vista machine. No real negatives at all

Cons the only thing I didn't like was the Samsung widget home screen so I switched to the traditional windows home screen. It's all good from there.

Summary Great SmartPhone! Love it! My only real issue was actually with Verizon, not the phone. On my old phone Moto KrZr I used Verizon's backup assistant. Verizon doesn't allow the Backup Assistant to be downloaded to this phone, so I had to go through the old list of my phone contacts and input them into MS Outlook so they would be on my phone. That stunk, but I love the phone.

Pros -Touchscreen
-Brilliant bright screen
-Good web browser
-Charger doubles as a USB cable to hook up to your computer

Cons -Lagging sometimes
-Confusing and complicated at first

Summary I got this phone for the new year and i simply love it! I have always wanted a touchscreen phone and this one is so awesome. I would recommend reading the manual to help you get started, cause doing it on your own is hard. I like that the charger can detach from the plug and connect your phone to your computer. A smart move. I would like, however, for the messaging to be a little less confusing and a lighter screen (meaning not black) would also be good for me. I recommend this phone non-the-less.

Pros The best thing about this is the screen, next up is the powerful processor, powered by a long-life battery. Other than that, this phone is packed with great features like a removable memory slot, regular audio jack, 5 meg camera, wifi, 3G.

Cons No built-in stylus. Slow browser. Glossy finish gets slippery. Touchwiz UI is not very useful or effective. Usual Windows bloatware and background-running-resource-eating evilness. Expensive 3rd party software.

Summary WM phones have always been attractive for me because they always had the best cutting edge hardware. BUT, I always shied away because it always felt like the processor or ram couldn't take the Windows OS so it always felt laggy, crash-prone. Samsung does a great job, however, at integrating everything into one cohesive package. For once, the processor seems to be coping very well with the resource-hungry OS, making all the functions more useful and practical.

Hardware-wise, you really can't fault this phone. Again, the screen is simply amazing. Like comparing a Plasma/LED tv to a tube-type screen. Everything looks bright, real and vivid. Connectivity is near automatic, although, I do have problems receiving data on bluetooth. Memory is a non-issue since you have expansion options - sky's the limit. The processor is top-notch. And, unlike most spec-heavy phones, the battery can take it. The phone functions work as they should with no problem. My only issues are that the stylus isn't built in and that there is no D-pad (helpful for gaming, navigating around).

As for the software, once you get over the unnecessary Touchwiz UI, it's all about Windows and all it's usual issues of bloat, background running apps, apps and files doubled or even trippled taking up space, fragmentation, virus worries etc, etc...and let's not forget high-priced applications, should you choose to add to the built-in apps. Touchwiz UI tries its best to make you feel like you're in full control but mostly it just adds another layer to an already heavily layered OS. Best to enable the default Windows UI, that's actually way more effective and uncluttered. That said, I believe that the built in apps are more useful for work than play. There are a few games out there but the lack of multi-touch really hampers the experience.

Out of the box, the hardware is near perfect, software is acceptable, but can be improved with the help of 3rd party applications like some Windows OS upkeep tools, for example. Gaming-wise, I don't know what can be done to help the situation since this lacks a D-pad and multi-touch screen. Racing, RPG, Puzzle games should work well enough, however. Overall, this makes it one hell of a business/multimedia smartphone.

Pros Large AMOLED screen. Syncs well w/ Outlook &has Word and Excel. Swype works VERY well. It's easy to swype one-handed using your thumb. 5mp camera takes beautiful pictures in the daytime or in dim lighting even w/o flash! 8gb internal memory!

Cons Reset button and microSD slot located under the battery cover, which is even harder to get to if you put a hard case on your phone like I do. I haven't had a phone or smartphone to date that I haven't had to reset at some point.

Summary I've played with the Motorola Droid, but found the physical keyboard a tad awkward because it's shifted so far to the left. The onscreen keyboard on the Droid works well, but I figured I could go without a physical keyboard then if I'd most likely use the onscreen keyboard on the Droid. Android and iPhones also don't sync as well with Outlook and I rely heavily on being able to seamlessly sync my desktop Outlook with my Outlook on my phone. I love how Omnia 2 also has Word and Excel so that I can edit/create documents or spreadsheets on the go. The camera is also better than other 5mb phones I've tried and it seems to let it enough light so that dim pictures also turn out nice! On a recent weekend trip, I ended up using my phone's camera more than my Canon digicam just because of the ease of use and how clear the pictures on my phone turned out! I find the Omnia 2 very user friendly and the swype technology is the biggest plus this device has to offer. Swyping is so much faster than pecking at each letter. The only downside to this device is that it can be a little buggy and the reset button is located under the battery cover. I use my phone heavily and I've had to reset it once so far in the 2 weeks I've owned it. I would still choose this phone over other smartphones on the market though, because it has so much to offer and is easy to use.